Ferries

A World War II-vintage ferry jammed with more than 500 Hindu pilgrims capsized on the Ganges River in eastern India on Saturday, killing at least 38 people and leaving hundreds missing, local officials and reporters said. About 100 people were rescued after the accident in Bihar state, according to reports from the remote area. Indian news agencies and local reporters said as many as 400 people are feared drowned.

The alternatives for taking a ferry to Santa Catalina Island--currently a choice between one- and two-hour trips--could soon become more complicated. A new company has announced plans to acquire Catalina Cruises, the slower and less expensive of two ferry services from the Long Beach-San Pedro area to the island. If approved by a state regulatory commission, Catalina Clipper's offer would introduce a second high-speed service.

The captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed into a pier last month, killing 10 people, finally met with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday, but would give only his name and age. NTSB head Ellen G. Engleman said that Michael Gansas exercised his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions about the Oct. 15 accident. "We hope we will be able to talk to Capt. Gansas in the future," Engleman said in a statement.

At least 50 people and as many as 150 were feared drowned after a ferry capsized in the harbor of the eastern Congolese lakeside town of Goma, officials said. Passengers and people who had come to see them off had rushed aboard the boat to take shelter when it started to rain heavily, officials said, and the boat capsized.

The National Transportation Safety Board sharply criticized New York City and the Coast Guard in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash that killed 11 passengers, saying tougher medical screening of ferry captains and safer operating procedures were needed. The board said the city's oversight was partly to blame for the crash, but stopped short of saying the Coast Guard's current system directly caused the deadly Oct. 15, 2003, accident.

Officials said 67 passengers were dead and more than 35 were missing after an overloaded ferry sank in stormy weather. The double-deck ferry capsized Sunday in the mouth of the Bura Gauranga River 90 miles south of Dhaka, the capital. Nearly 50 passengers survived.

A state judge agreed to temporarily block the Superferry from Maui's Kahului Harbor. Environmentalists sought the temporary restraining order pending an environmental assessment. The request does not affect ports on Oahu or Kauai. The environmentalists argued in a lawsuit that the ferry's plan to ply 400 miles of Hawaii waters each day endangers whales. Superferry officials have said that the vessel's water jet propulsion system has no exposed propellers to strike aquatic animals.

The state's only ferry between the islands can't sail until it shows it won't harm the marine environment, Maui Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza has ruled in Wailuku. "The purpose of the law is to protect the environment, not to protect economic interests," Cardoza said. The decision may run the state's first inter-island passenger and vehicle ferry service permanently aground after five years of preparations.

Rescuers on the Red Sea found a few more survivors from an Egyptian ferry that caught fire and sank Friday, but hundreds of people remained missing and presumed dead. At Safaga, the ferry's destination, hundreds of relatives awaited news of their loved ones.